A/N The first part seems to be coming to an end.
"She's fast, mean, and fights dirty."
"None of us wants to hear the President try to speak Zamibian."
"Corporate shill!"
"I wouldn't ask you to."
"Where have you been?" asked Chuck, as Morgan dragged himself through the doorway at some ungodly hour of the morning, his shirt untucked, his hair mussed, and most important, his manager's vest unbuttoned. Sarah was sleeping in, lucky her, since Shaw had gone and recommended the Double O be shut down and now everyone was considering it, leaving her without a cover job. On the other hand, she would have the incredible joy of briefing the General about their mission by herself.
"Riot at the Buy More," said the other man dully, wincing at the dull thud as he dropped his bag by the door. Even the tiniest sounds bothered him.
Right, there was that game thing yesterday. "You had a riot at the Buy More?"
"Almost," said Morgan, shutting the door. "I brought in Bravo Team from Verbanski Corp., paid them with Spy Attack, and put them up against the rioters on Rainbow Ten. They didn't even start to lose until after three in the morning."
Chuck had no problem following the explanation. The parts that confused him also concerned him a little, but he didn't let that show on his face. What team from who? "So you're saying there wasn't a riot in the Buy More."
Morgan bent all the way down to grab the strap to his bag and then stood all the way back up. "This surprises you?"
"Not with you in charge, buddy." Chuck laughed. "If only all wars were fought that way."
"They should put me in charge," said Morgan, tiredly. Just not today. He walked off to his bedroom, dragging the bag behind him. "I'd ask you how your night went but I'm afraid you might answer me."
"Sorry, buddy, classified."
"Thank God."
Chuck headed in to the Buy More, pretty sure that the place would have more issues than usual today, after the night Morgan described and Morgan himself catching up on his sleep. When he got in the front door he saw Casey looking over the mess. Cheese ball boxes and soda bottles littered every available surface, while chips and popcorn were scattered all over the floor. The display cases were in the wrong places, their contents scattered about. "What the hell happened here, Bartowski? The place looks like a war zone."
"You're not too far off," said Chuck, putting his bag behind the Nerd Herd desk. "Apparently Morgan decided to challenge some Verbanski Corp. mercenaries to a game of Rainbow Ten against all comers, and I guess they won."
"Of course they won, moron," growled Casey, "Gertrude only hires the best. What I'd like to know is how does a low-life like Morgan Grimes have Bravo Team on speed-dial?"
"How'd you know it was Bravo Team?" asked Chuck suspiciously. He'd been thinking about the same question all the way in, and while he thought he'd traced it back to tiger night, the trail ran cold with Alex and he wasn't going to make Casey worry unnecessarily. He was a bit of a worrier about some things. It wasn't pretty. But...Gertrude? If the woman on tiger night was Verbanski, and Casey was calling her Gertrude, that would go a long way toward explaining what she was doing there.
"They weren't at the action site last night, dumbass," said Casey. "Figured they had to be somewhere."
"What action site?" An action site with Gertrude? More likely an action site with Verbanski Corp. What had Casey been doing while they were sidelined, and how did Alex fit into it?
"My action site," growled Casey. Didn't Bartowski watch the news? While there were a lot of things he could imagine them doing, or rather one thing a lot of times, Casey couldn't see them behaving so unprofessionally as to not track current events. "While you've been lollygagging around talking to shrinks, some of us have been working for a living. How's that going, by the way?"
"Good, good," said Chuck, logging in. "The doc gave me and Sarah a mission."
A mission? While he was herding the Three Amigos? "I thought you were in therapy."
Chuck shrugged, checking the alerts. Lots of perimeter warnings thanks to Morgan keeping the store open after hours. "He didn't seem too concerned about that, said Sarah was the only real therapy I needed…"He deleted the alerts, and the footage from the HT room, sight unseen.
Casey grunted. "Could'a told him that."
"But I think he's interested in the thing, you know," said Chuck, looking around for any spies or very large listening devices within earshot. Last night would have been a perfect opportunity for enemy agents to plant something. He activated the signal jammer, just in case. "He's interested in how it works with my dreams. I expect we'll be seeing him a while yet, just for that."
Casey knew all about bad dreams. He still had nightmares from Ellie's interrogation. He tried to imagine that multiplied by the Intersect, and then tried not to. "What kind of dreams?"
"Shaw again, this time delivering Zamibian takeout."
Casey tried to imagine anything that Shaw might have done or been able to do, that would have earned him a place in an Intersect dream, and came up empty. "You really think Shaw could be that bad, Bartowski?"
Chuck shook his head. "The clue wasn't Shaw, it was the Zamibian food, that's what the doc wanted us to check out, and he was right. There was a Ring connection to Zamibia, but I had to dream it to see it. Apparently if I don't flash, the Intersect finds other outlets, but they're less reliable."
Less reliable than the Intersect. Terrific. "Please tell me you're allowed to flash now."
"That's up to the doc," said Chuck. "I did flash, once, and punched the bad guy on the wrong side of his face. Still not sure how that happened." He flexed his hand, remembering the feel of the impact. "Not sure I want to do any flashing anymore."
Weapons malfunction, can't have that. "You'll figure it out," said Casey.
"I hope so." He turned in his chair, looking over the devastation. Less than a full-scale riot would have caused, but still, a lot for just them. And Jeff's boob-cam had to be out there somewhere. "Until then..."
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Bartowski," said Casey. "I already called for backup." He turned as the door behind him swung open, letting in three total strangers wearing greenshirt uniforms. "All right you three, time to pay the piper."
Back at the casa de Grimes y Walker (since Bartowski wasn't home)…
"I'm very glad to have this opportunity to talk to you alone, Agent Walker," said General Beckman.
"Begging the General's pardon," said Sarah, "But just because Chuck isn't here doesn't mean I'm alone."
"Understood," said Beckman, "It's expected you will share this briefing with Agent Bartowski, but we leave it to your discretion just how much and in what fashion you share it. He was right about Martin Kowambe, his organ harvesting and illegal experiments on genetic manipulation. However, we find troubling the fact that it took two tries, the second one accidental, to obtain the tooth with the information in it."
"Yes, ma'am," said Sarah. "So did Chuck."
"Oh," said Beckman. "Furthermore, we suspect that Kowambe had come to LA to transfer this information to the Ring. While the capture of the data itself was of paramount importance, I am concerned that the Ring contact was not also captured. This operation, while a credit to any agent, was nonetheless far below Agent Bartowski's standard."
"Yes, ma'am," said Sarah. "Chuck thought so too. I believe if you look in the footnotes to his report you'll find an apology."
"Oh," said Beckman. "I'll have to check, I tend to avoid footnotes. Moving on, while it is up to Dr. Dreyfus whether or not Chuck is to be returned to active duty status, I have to say that I would prefer he keep the flashing to a minimum, especially on the skill sets, until we can get a handle on why they seemed to fail in this case."
"Yes, ma'am," said Sarah. "That was Chuck's intention as well."
"Oh." Beckman sat and looked at Sarah calmly for a second. "Ellie?"
"We're hoping that, as a trained neurologist who's already been read in, she'll be given a more active role in determining the cause of the failure in this case."
Beckman tried to cut in. "And Doctor-"
"Dreyfus should be kept in the loop as a consulting partner with Ellie, yes," finished Sarah with a firm nod.
"Are we finished?" asked Beckman.
"I don't know," said Sarah. "It's your meeting."
Beckman reached out and cut the connection.
On a secure conference call…
"Bartowski finally surfaced."
"Good," said A.
"No, not good," said C. "As expected he ignored all the low-hanging fruit and waited for a big fish. Somehow he twigged to V and got to him before we could."
"The data?" asked E.
"I'm talking about the data," said C. "I couldn't care less about V, but the data is vital to phase three."
"Vital but not irreplaceable," said B. "It would be unprofessional not to have backups. The real problem is that this setback makes the Russian more important, and he'll surely know that."
"He wouldn't come on board before," snapped E. "What makes you think he'll join us now?"
"Nothing," said B evenly. "Given the status quo, he has no reason to do so."
"Then let's change things up," said C. "Offer him a status quid pro quo, if you know what I mean."
"Clarify," said A.
"Bartowski," said C. "Offer him up to Bartowski. He'll join us."
"And if he doesn't?" asked A. "He's neutral at the moment. We don't need him actively against us."
"We don't need him at all," said C. "Just his tech, his empire was always a frill. At the very least, Bartowski can give us an opening to take what we need. At best, they destroy each other and we take it all."
At the Buy More...
"Afternoon, Chuck."
The tone was polite, respectful. The speaker wore the suit, correctly. The tie was tied, the hair was brushed, the eyes were focused. "Jeff?" asked Chuck.
"It's me, Chuck," said Jeff with a smile. "I'm here for my shift. There are a couple of Macs in the cage with my name on them. It's in permanent marker but I think I can get that off."
"Yeah, uh, Jeff, you do that," said Chuck, as he saw Sarah come through the door. Time to go see Dr. Dreyfus. Possibly more than he thought. "Maybe watch the desk. Morgan's been out all day, Casey and I have been covering for him."
"Sure, Chuck. Glad to do it," said Jeff. "Just let me put my salad in the refrigerator." He walked off, quick and purposeful.
Sarah pulled his head around to look at her, and gave them both some much-needed we-haven't-PDA'd-for-hours PDA. "Did you see that?" he asked her.
"I did," she said.
"Did it look like Jeff to you?" He sounded nervous.
Today was not a day to be seeing things. "It did," said Sarah, taking his arm. "You are fine. Perfectly fine. Trust me, Chuck."
Casey got to the range late. Gertrude had already made a large and ragged hole in her target's heart. "Sorry," he said, watching it come in from way back there.
"You'll make it up to me," she said.
"I will." He handed her an envelope, setting out his gear as she opened it.
"That is a lot of zeroes," she murmured.
"Funny, the Three Amigos said the same thing when I handed them their share." He slid home the magazine and racked the first round.
She put the check carefully away. "Were they really as bad as they seemed?"
"A gentleman never shoots and tells," said Casey. He sent a target waaaayyyyy down the range, raised his gun and emptied the clip.
"Are you a gentleman?" she asked, after he'd finished.
He pulled the target back. Not a single shot had hit the 10-ring, instead making a heart-shaped outline around it. "I'll let you decide."
Morgan knocked on Alex' door. "Hey," she said, when she answered it, and stood aside to let him in.
"How are you doing?" he asked, noticing the reduced state of her bandages and such.
"I told you, I heal quickly, and she was pulling her punches. I'll be ready in plenty of time."
"So you told your boss?"
"Yeah. You?"
"It's not that easy for me," said Morgan. "Managers are supposed to give two weeks' notice, that sort of thing, so they can get a replacement. Fortunately there's Chuck and Casey, who can keep it going, but I don't know where they're gonna find someone who can tolerate that madhouse."
"Not your concern," said Alex.
"You're my concern," said Morgan.
"And you're mine. You've been stuck in that Buy More long enough."
Morgan pulled two cans of grape soda from his backpack, popped them open, one in each hand-"Show off," said Alex-and handed her one. They clinked the cans together. "Here's to moving forward."
A/N2 Not an easy chapter to write. Let me know what you think of it.